Immigration and Ships Passenger Lists Research Guide           
Section 6.0 - Last updated Sept 2011

The Ship's List   An extensive list of ship descriptions,  indicated as an addendum to Lou Alfano's Immigrant Ships website.  The descriptions have been extracted from posts to TheShipsList and Mariners List.

Magellan - The Ships Encyclopedia   Approximately 15,000 ship biographies, pictures, and voyages.  Another place to begin.

Register of Ships    Gilbert Provost's site includes lots of of ship registration details gathered from the Lloyd's  registry of shipping.   The database spans from 1764 to 2003.  Lookups of other ships in Lloyd's registry also possible.

Ellis Island Database  
If the ship came to the port of New York (Ellis Island)  from 1892 to 1924 you can view many images on-line, or you can order a photographic print of that ship for a fee from the American Family Immigration History Center.  Either search for your ancestor to locate the ship or use the Stephen Morse site, and enter the ship name (See Section 5 of this Guide for details)

The Ocean Liners
This page has pictures and descriptions of many of the ocean liners from mid 1800's to 1960's.  Also, includes links to other sites having a large number of pictures

Palmer's List of Merchant Vessels 
Descriptions of merchant vessels, both sail and steam, compiled by Michael Palmer over the course of many years from a variety of sources.  The site includes pictures of many of the vessels.  In many cases,  larger sizes of pictures may be available from the web site.

KinShip Prints    
KinShips offers a wide assortment of prints including images of passenger ships, contemporary maritime advertising art, European costume, and European royalty. (Large matted prints available for fee) Another good place to start to find a picture.

Heritage-Ships Images of ships and related activities - Mostly steamships arranged by Steamship Companies.  Ships images for a fee.  Ships are listed by ships line but is searchable.

Mystic Seaport Steamship Images Collection  Numerous online pictures and information about steamships (1862 - 1927) from the Mystic Seaport Museum Collection.   Research service is available.  Prints may also be ordered.

Red Star Line Ships  
Descriptions and pictures of the Line's ships from 1872 to 1924 which departed from Antwerp, Belgium.

The Unofficial Holland America Line Ships 
Pictures and descriptions of the Line's ships from the Rotterdam I of 1873 through the present

Ship's History Service 
Don Hazledine's Ships History Service (a fee based service) has photos of a thousand ships.  Click on the link to see what ships are immediately available.  He provides a photograph and historical information about the ship for around $8.   He also offers a CD entitled “The Compendium of the World's Passenger Ships”, which contains photos and details of  about 1600 passenger ships dating back to 1854.

Fine Art Emporium     
Mainly devoted to painters of marine art, but does include pictures of a number of ships

Ships Index
A searchable  index to an extensive number of pictures and information.  If you have been having problems, search this comprehensive listing of ship names and where those ships may be illustrated and described in a book (including the page number.)  It also includes an extensive bibliography of ship-related books.   Look here to find a book title containing your ship.  Then attempt to get the book by inter-library loan or look for it at other maritime libraries.

Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) Library Index to Ship Pictures, Drawings and Plans   http://www.anmm.gov.au/lib/spix.htm
An extensive index to pictures and information arranged by ship names compiled from books in the Museum Library collection. Similar to the above listing, it includes a wide range of titles for ships world-wide covering the sailing ship era up to current day cruise ships, illustrated newspapers and maritime art books. 

National Maritime Museum's PORT 
The Maritime Information Gateway, an outstanding online searchable catalogue of web pages containing ship's information and other high quality maritime-related Internet resources

Civil War Ships 
Pictures of  Civil War Ships.

6.2 Books

Ship Index
A searchable  index to an extensive number of pictures and information.  If you have been having problems, search this comprehensive listing of ship names and where those ships may be illustrated and described in a book (including the page number.)  It also includes an extensive bibliography of ship-related books.   Look here to find a book title containing your ship.  Then attempt to get the book by inter-library loan or look for it at other maritime libraries.

Following are some of the more popular books that contain pictures, and sometimes other information concerning a ship.

Great Passenger Ships of the World (5 volumes) by Arnold Kludas

Passenger Liners from Germany, 1816-1990 by Clas Broder Hansen

Passenger Ships of the World Past and Present by Eugene W. Smith

Pictorial Encyclopedia of Ocean Liners 1860-1994 by William H. Miller, Jr.

Picture History of the Cunard Line 1840-1990 by Frank O. Braynard & William H. Miller, Jr.

Ships of Our Ancestors   by Michael J. Anuta   

Lloyd's Register of Shipping   Held by most marine libraries.  Site has details of Lloyds Registers and locations of holdings,
     A yearly alphabetical listing of  vessels compiled by Lloyd's of London. Gives technical specifications of each vessel, dates and place of build, names of owners, masters and up to the 1850's details of voyages made.   Until 1890, Lloyd's Register is almost exclusively confined to vessels of British registry, although the volumes do list some foreign vessels that traded regularly with Great Britain.  From 1875, all British vessels of 100 tons and over are listed, and from 1890, all British and foreign sea-going vessels over 100 tons have been listed.
        Also see Gilbert Provost's - Register of Ships    

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6.3 Marine Museums and Libraries

Marine libraries as noted below have many ship's pictures which they will copy for you. The Peabody Museum may have the best collection of pictures of early sailing ships and the Steamship Historical Society of America may have the most extensive collection of steamship pictures. The marine library home pages may also have ship pictures on-line.

If you are sending a request by mail, send the list of ship names in alphabetical order on a separate page from the letter. Remember, there were many ship's having the same name, and therefore, it is important to include dates and other information to identify each vessel as fully as possible. Fees are charged for photocopies and/or photograph copies. Independent research can be done at all libraries. Make an advance appointment to visit the library.

Mystic Seaport Museum of America and the Sea
50 Germanville Ave.
Mystic, CT 06355
(860) 572-5370 or 860-572-0711 ext. 5065
The link for the Rosenthal collection of photographs

South Street Seaport Museum 
They have a growing collection,  Check the collections of the Seamen's Bank for Savings, acquired in 1991
207 Front St.
New York, NY 10038

Texas Seaport Museum 
The Texas Seaport Museum, has a searchable database and an extensive collection of information regarding shipping to Texas.
Location:  Pier 21, Number 8                      
Galveston TX 77550
409-763-1877

Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
1055 Marginal Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 4P6
(902) 425- 7770

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